download CV
The group IOCOSE has been working in Italy and Europe since 2006. It organizes actions in order to subvert ideologies, practices and processes of identification and production of meanings. It uses pranks and hoaxes as tactical means, as joyful and sound tools. IOCOSE thinks about the streets, internet and word of mouth as a battlefield. Tactics such as mimesis and trickery are used to lead and delude the audience into a semantic pitfall.
Among other works, in 2006 it established a (fake) society - "ThirDog", to adopt Third World dogs - in order to ridicule the conception of poverty and its politically correct remedies.
In 2007 it organized "Win Nothing Day", a competition in European supermarkets with no final prize; an hoax against the strategies of instinctive consumption.
The same year it established "NextQuery" - a society for selling the next top keywords; a useful consultancy in the age of online marketing delirium.
In 2008, during the Italian national elections, IOCOSE set up a propaganda campaign for the new Democratic Party sending out thousands of spam emails. The rhetoric of the electoral campaign was pushed to its limits, but yet resulted in a realistic action, as hundreds of spammed voters overreacted and sent hate mails back to the group. When revealed as a hoax, it showed how close the electoral rhetoric is to a Viagra sale.
In 2009 IOCOSE invented the Empathy Box, a new machine designed by the Bureau of United Religions. The Empathy Box tries to appeal to new generations providing a technological tool for introducing religious life in the daily habits. If the hi-tech market needs consumers constantly worshipping their products, then there is no reason for religions not to do the same.
Also in 2009, IOCOSE and other artist groups from Italy built an IKEA-style guillotine and put it up at the IKEA store. Mixing together personal freedom debates, punishment with no jury trial and industrial design, the project ironically realized the dream for a do-it-yourself justice.
SELECT EXHIBITIONS
2010
16-17 April, NodeFest, C.S.O.A. Forte Prenestino, Rome, Italy
2-3 April, NodeFest, Machine Club, Istanbul, Turkey
15 March, The Gallery at Goldsmiths, London, UK
4-6 February, The Influencers, CCCB, Barcellona, Spain
2009
E-volution, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy
Once Upon a Time in the West, Pixxelpoint 2009, Mestna Galerija, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Node Festival, Forte Prenestino, Roma, Italy
Node Festival, Crash!, Bologna, Italy
Feel the Machine, GUM Studio, Carrara, Italy
2008
For God's Sake, Pixxelpoint 2008, Mestna Galerija, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Milano in Digitale III, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy
MAM, Museo di Arte Moderna, Mantova, Italy
Tutto quello che diciamo รจ falso, Betty&Books, Bologna, Italy
2007
Milano in Digitale II, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano, Italy
CURATED WORKSHOPS
2009
Auto-formazione, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milano, Italy
Menopausapranzo, AreaOdeon Gallery, Monza, Italy
The group IOCOSE has been working in Italy and Europe since 2006. It organizes actions in order to subvert ideologies, practices and processes of identification and production of meanings. It uses pranks and hoaxes as tactical means, as joyful and sound tools. IOCOSE thinks about the streets, internet and word of mouth as a battlefield. Tactics such as mimesis and trickery are used to lead and delude the audience into a semantic pitfall.
Among other works, in 2006 it established a (fake) society - "ThirDog", to adopt Third World dogs - in order to ridicule the conception of poverty and its politically correct remedies.
In 2007 it organized "Win Nothing Day", a competition in European supermarkets with no final prize; an hoax against the strategies of instinctive consumption.
The same year it established "NextQuery" - a society for selling the next top keywords; a useful consultancy in the age of online marketing delirium.
In 2008, during the Italian national elections, IOCOSE set up a propaganda campaign for the new Democratic Party sending out thousands of spam emails. The rhetoric of the electoral campaign was pushed to its limits, but yet resulted in a realistic action, as hundreds of spammed voters overreacted and sent hate mails back to the group. When revealed as a hoax, it showed how close the electoral rhetoric is to a Viagra sale.
In 2009 IOCOSE invented the Empathy Box, a new machine designed by the Bureau of United Religions. The Empathy Box tries to appeal to new generations providing a technological tool for introducing religious life in the daily habits. If the hi-tech market needs consumers constantly worshipping their products, then there is no reason for religions not to do the same.
Also in 2009, IOCOSE and other artist groups from Italy built an IKEA-style guillotine and put it up at the IKEA store. Mixing together personal freedom debates, punishment with no jury trial and industrial design, the project ironically realized the dream for a do-it-yourself justice.
SELECT EXHIBITIONS
2010
16-17 April, NodeFest, C.S.O.A. Forte Prenestino, Rome, Italy
2-3 April, NodeFest, Machine Club, Istanbul, Turkey
15 March, The Gallery at Goldsmiths, London, UK
4-6 February, The Influencers, CCCB, Barcellona, Spain
2009
E-volution, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy
Once Upon a Time in the West, Pixxelpoint 2009, Mestna Galerija, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Node Festival, Forte Prenestino, Roma, Italy
Node Festival, Crash!, Bologna, Italy
Feel the Machine, GUM Studio, Carrara, Italy
2008
For God's Sake, Pixxelpoint 2008, Mestna Galerija, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Milano in Digitale III, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy
MAM, Museo di Arte Moderna, Mantova, Italy
Tutto quello che diciamo รจ falso, Betty&Books, Bologna, Italy
2007
Milano in Digitale II, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano, Italy
CURATED WORKSHOPS
2009
Auto-formazione, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milano, Italy
Menopausapranzo, AreaOdeon Gallery, Monza, Italy
